Tag Archives: Bahrain GP

Sebastian Vettel has taken a comfortable win in the Bahrain Grand Prix, while rival Fernando Alonso fought his way back up the grid after suffering mechanical issues early on.

Alonso’s DRS jammed itself open on lap 8, forcing the Spaniard to pit for quick repairs. However, the exact same thing happened on the following lap, and the Ferrari driver’s race was ruined.

Vettel took the lead from Nico Rosberg in the opening laps, after an enthralling battle with Alonso and the Mercedes. Both drivers disposed of Nico, and after Fernando’s DRS failure, Sebastian was unmatched for the rest of the afternoon. At the back, a first-lap clash between Giedo van der Garde and Jean-Eric Vergne put the Toro Rosso out of the race on the first lap.

Rosberg later slipped further down the order, being carved up by the midfield and falling to 6th place.

Paul di Resta and Kimi Raikkonen emerged at podium contenders throughout the race, utilising 2-stop strategies to slip ahead of the Mercedes cars after the first round of stops. However, Di Resta was caught by Romain Grosjean in the closing laps, and the Scot will have to wait a while longer for his first podium finish. Teammate Adrian Sutil incurred a puncture on the first lap after contact with Felipe Massa, and could only recover to 13th place.

McLaren saw a fascinating inter-team battle develop, as Sergio Perez fought bravely with Jenson Button all afternoon. They clashed wheels on more than one occasion, earning Sergio some criticism from Jenson on the radio. Nevertheless, they stayed out of the barriers, and Perez took a commendable 6th place by the end of the race.

He became embroiled in another battle near the end, between Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, who had absolutely no pace in comparison to his teammate. Both drivers found their way past the Red Bull on the final lap, leaving Hamilton in 5th position.

A lack of pace and a puncture resulted in no points for Felipe Massa, finishing 15th. Alonso found himself almost a minute behind the leaders after his two early stops, but bravely fought his way back to 8th place by the chequered flag. He was briefly as high as 6th, but was punished by the resurgent Perez near the end.

With Vettel amassing a comfortable 10-second lead by the end, he increases his championship lead to 10 points, ahead of Raikkonen, Hamilton and Alonso. However, it is apparent that no one driver is a clear favourite for the title yet.

For the second race in a row, a Mercedes driver will start from the front spot on the grid. This time, it was Nico Rosberg who took the honours, as Lewis Hamilton struggled with less pace and a gearbox penalty.

Sebastian Vettel is in a prime position to attack from 2nd place on the grid, while the Ferraris are 3rd and 4th. Penalties for Hamilton and Mark Webber have elevated Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil to 5th and 6th places. Here is what happened in qualifying:

Q1

Thankfully, we didn’t see a repeat of what happened in China, as most drivers partook in the majority of Q1.

Fernando Alonso had noteworthy pace on the hard compound tyres, going faster than medium-clad Sebastian Vettel. It was immediately apparent that Lotus’ pace had slid away, as Kimi Raikkonen struggled to keep his car on track under braking, repeatedly locking up and going off the track.

Both Williams drivers set the exact same time to a thousandth of a second, but Maldonado set his time later, so he was demoted further down the order, and was eventually knocked out of Q1.

Charles Pic put Caterham ahead of Marussia for the first time this season, while Esteban Gutierrez will start from 22nd after a penalty from last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Drivers knocked out of Q1:

17) Pastor Maldonado – 1:34.425

18) Esteban Gutierrez – 1:34.730 (+ 5 positions)

19) Charles Pic – 1:35.283

20) Jules Bianchi – 1:36.178

21) Giedo van der Garde – 1:36.304

22) Max Chilton – 1:36.476

Q2

Paul di Resta put Force India firmly in the spotlight, initially leading proceedings, and eventually taking 4th place in Q2.

Romain Grosjean was all set to partake in Q3, until a mistake on his final Q2 lap put him under pressure. Jenson Button was all too willing to pounce, and was audibly delighted on the team radio afterwards.

Sergio Perez yet again failed to make the cut, while Nico Hulkenberg demonstrated Sauber’s lack of pace this weekend.

Drivers knocked out in Q2:

11) Romain Grosjean – 1:33.762

12) Sergio Perez – 1:33.914

13) Daniel Ricciardo – 1:33.974

14) Nico Hulkenberg – 1:33.976

15) Valtteri Bottas – 1:34.105

16) Jean-Eric Vergne – 1:34.284

Q3

A quick lap by Rosberg at the start of Q3 was enough to state his intentions. Alonso and Hamilton duly slotted behind in the first set of lap times.

All 10 drivers went out on track for the final 5 minutes, providing a closely-fought battle for pole. Only Jenson Button ended up not setting a time, the McLaren making a mistake on his sole lap.

Alonso also aborted his final run, leaving Vettel and Hamilton to chase the second Mercedes driver. After Nico improved his lap time again, Vettel could only get within a quarter of a second, while Hamilton could only muster 4th place.

Felipe Massa qualified 6th, but has been elevated to 4th because of other drivers’ penalties. He will start on the hard tyre, interestingly, and it will be fascinating to see how he matches up to teammate Alonso tomorrow.

The Force Indias were 7th and 8th, and Kimi Raikkonen had no pace whatsoever in Q3, a full second off Rosberg’s time.

After only 3 races out of the cockpit, former Caterham driver Heikki Kovalainen will drive for the team in the next two race weekends in the practice sessions.

He will take the place of Alexander Rossi, who was originally set to drive in these sessions. Kovalainen will drive in Giedo van der Garde’s car for FP1 and possibly FP2 for both race weekends.

Caterham say the reason for the switch is because of Rossi’s move to the Caterham GP2 team, replacing Ma Qing Hua. However, seeing as Heikki was originally dropped because of financial reasons, rumours are growing that the Finn is preparing a comeback with his former team.

Pirelli has made the call to drop the soft compound tyre for the Bahrain Grand Prix, after heavy degradation in last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

No driver spent more than 7 laps on the soft tyre in China, and several drivers were quick to criticise the option tyre. With this in mind, the teams will now be using the medium and hard compounds for next Sunday’s race. Last year saw the use of the soft and medium tyres at the Sakhir International Circuit.

Despite the change, Pirelli are estimating that most drivers will run 3-stop strategies next weekend.

Weeks and weeks before the Bahrain Grand Prix, we were already aware that a race should never have taken place in the troubled region. Aside from the blatant political motive, it was clear that the sport had put its personnel in danger. I’d like to say that we’ll never have to deal with such a farce again, but that’s wishful thinking.

Politics and profit win over sport

F1 has disgraced itself by allowing itself to be manipulated - and the FIA's to blame

There are many to blame over what Formula 1 was forced to go through, but one organisation should have put a stop to it: the FIA.

Bernie Ecclestone is well known for putting profit first – I’m surprised that people expected him to act differently this weekend. Perhaps he was misinformed over the Bahrain situation, or maybe he took a calculated risk. Either way, he should not have been the one to make the final call over the event.

The FIA’s primary responsibility is to ensure the safety of all participants, and it was clear that they failed to do that. To add insult to injury, they allowed the race organisers to use the sport as a political tool – running the UniF1ed slogan throughout the weekend.

FIA Statue Article 1 states that “The FIA shall refrain from manifesting racial, political or religious discrimination in the course of its activites and from taking any action in this respect”. One of the sport’s most primary objectives has been made a mockery of, all in the name of profit.

The profiteers from this race, of course, are the Al Khalifa royal family. Having invested in and organised the race, they also stand to gain the most from the race, and they made absolutely sure they got their money’s worth this time. By doing so, though, they have disgraced what should be a pure sporting event.

This kind of farce has happened before – see F1 racing in South Africa in the 80s for more details – but it doesn’t hide the fact that last weekend was never about the racing.

Lotus finally deliver on promises

After three disappointing races, Lotus have finally shown their hand – and may well be the fifth team to win a race this year.

Kimi Raikkonen was able to challenge for the win on Sunday, but slipped away after the final stop. Regardless, it shows excellent progress from Melbourne, and Grosjean’s first ever podium proves that he’s up to the task as well.

Team principal Eric Boullier stated that Romain could even become world champion if he continues to improve, and I don’t doubt him. From qualifying in Australia, Grosjean was already proving that he could take on Raikkonen.

It’s not outrageous to suggest that Lotus could still be in contention in Spain in a few weeks time. If they do take the chequered flag first, then 5 different teams will have won one of the first 5 races, and that could set us up for a magnificent title battle.

Sebastian Vettel has taken his first win of the year at the Bahrain Grand Prix. He held off the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen during the middle stint, and then created a gap to cruise to victory. Romain Grosjean drove an excellent race to take his first podium of his F1 career. The McLarens had a horrific race, with Lewis Hamilton suffering multiple pit problems, and Jenson Button multiple car problems. Here is what happened:

At the start, Vettel held his lead, while Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso leaped up the grid. Daniel Ricciardo swiftly slipped down the field to 17th, after starting from 6th.

Jenson Button lost out, falling to 6th, while Felipe Massa pulled himself up to 9th. Heikki Kovalainen suffered a puncture on the first lap, falling to the back of the field.

Massa continued his good start, shoving his way past Kimi Raikkonen at turns 1 and 2. However, the Lotus driver was having none of it, retrieving his position on lap 5.

Grosjean impressively moved up to 3rd, and in the early stages closed the gap to Hamilton in 2nd. A DRS-assisted move put him past the McLaren. Meanwhile the other Lotus sailed past Jenson Button for 6th.

Button, Massa and Rosberg all stopped suddenly on lap 9, all taking on the medium tyre. It soon turned out to be the correct move, as their teammates all stopped the next lap. However, Hamilton’s pit stop turned out to be a disaster, losing him over 5 seconds.

Rosberg pushes Hamilton off the limits of the track

Lewis emerged alongside Nico Rosberg, and pushed the track well beyond its extremes, running onto the concrete to keep the position. However, the stewards took a dim view of the clever move, and put the two drivers under investigation.

Button soon forced his way past Alonso for 7th. Paul di Resta inherited the lead while Vettel pitted, but was soon passed by the Red Bull. Kimi Raikkonen continued his ascent, scything past Webber for 5th.

Approaching the next pit stop phase, Raikkonen also moved past teammate Grosjean for 2nd. Another disastrous pitstop awaited Hamilton on lap 24 however, a faulty wheel nut delaying him by another 10 seconds.

Another pit stop problem for Hamilton

After the pit stops, Fernando Alonso began to fight Nico Rosberg for 8th. The Mercedes driver attempted a similar move he put on Hamilton, pushing the Ferrari clean onto the conrecte, forcing Fernando to surrender the position. However, the stewards also disapproved of this move, and similarly put them under investigation after the race.

A spin by Pastor Maldonado at turn 2 dealt fatal damage to the Williams, forcing him to retire.

Paul di Resta, who took a different strategy to the rest of the field, was running 4th on lap 29, after only stopping once. However, he was soon caught and passed by Mark Webber, who had stopped twice.

On lap 35, the battle for the lead became clear. Raikkonen had cleared all the cars in his way, and was all over the back of Vettel’s Red Bull. They tussled for several laps, allowing teammate Grosjean to move closer to the duo. As the race entered the final 20 laps, strategy became crucial as to who would win the race.

Both Vettel and Raikkonen pitted on lap 40, with Sebastian gaining a slight advantage over the stop. Over the next 15 laps, it became a battle of tyre conservation as Vettel did his best to hold off the Lotus, while keeping his tyres under control.

Vettel returns to the top step of the podium

Nico Rosberg found himself stuck behind Paul di Resta, finding that DRS was insufficient to pass the Force India. With 4 laps to go, he finally made the move, and leaped into 5th place.

Jenson Button closed in on Di Resta, but a surprise puncture threw the McLaren out of the top 10 with only 3 laps to go. His bad luck didn’t end there though, as a cracked exhaust and several other problems forced Jenson to retire.

Raikkonen’s charge was quelled, as he lacked the pace to catch the Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel crossed the line first, to take his first win of 2012, and the lead of the drivers championship. Oddly, he was instructed to pull over after the chequered flag, and the same instruction was given to Nico Rosberg.

Paul di Resta held off Fernando Alonso crossing the line to equal his best Grand Prix result of 6th place.

Force India have experienced the nasty side of what is supposed to be a fair sporting event

As many viewers of the Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying session had noticed, the Force India team were completely isolated in terms of television coverage.

While Paul di Resta made it through to Q3, absolutely no shots of either Force India car were shown at all during the three qualifying sessions. During a certain point when only Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg were out on track, the cameras focused on a Mercedes in the pits instead.

The team had pulled out of second practice yesterday, to alleviate employees’ fears of a repeat of the violence they were caught up in on Wednesday night.

Because of this, many have speculated that Bernie Ecclestone had ordered his FOM company – who organise and run the camerawork for all F1 events – to completely block the team out of today’s coverage.

A quote from Ecclestone only served to increase these calls:

"Nobody cares if someone is ninth or 11th. Only the people that are watching a
particular team. I spoke to our people and they were more or less concentrating
on who was going to be on pole, rather than somebody going to be 10th."
[Seems as if Bernie forgot that the cars in 9th and 11th were Fernando Alonso
and Kimi Raikkonen"]

As well as this, MetroF1 correspondent Adam-Hay Nicholls had some worrying things to say on the incident over Twitter:

"Not the 1st time they've been instructed not to film a certain team"
[When asked what team was subject to a similar blackout] "All I'll reveal is
that the name of the team no longer exists"

This was backed up by former FOM employee Nick Daman:

"When I worked for FOM it was well known that the punishment for stepping out
of line was a TV Blackout ......"

What makes this incident so sickening is that Force India pulled out for the safety of their employees, not to take a stand against FOM or the Bahrain regime. It is understood that Ecclestone offered the team an armed escort back to the team hotel [provided they took part in FP2] but the team declined, opting to head home early.

Personally, I don’t know which is more worrying – that a team would be shut out for protecting its employees, or that this has been done before, and we haven’t noticed.

Sebastian Vettel is back on pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The 2-times world champion pipped Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second, with teammate Mark Webber in 3rd. Nico Rosberg was 5th, while neither Michael Schumacher or Kimi Raikkonen were in the top 10. Here is the full report:

Q1

Paul di Resta was the first out on track, as a headwind at turn 4 hindered some teams’ setups. Nico Hulkenberg set the first fast lap of 1:35.970.

Fernando Alonso surprised many by taking on the softer tyres, indicating that Ferrari wish to conserve the medium tyres for the race tomorrow. While teammate Massa went slower than the Force Indias and Daniel Ricciardo, Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest time by half a second.

The bar was soon lowered by Mark Webber, and then Jenson Button. Unsurprisingly, Alonso’s softer tyres soon put him on top.

Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean beat the fastest time by another 0.5 seconds. The track went quiet until the final few minutes, when Jean-Eric Vergne and Felipe Massa pulled themselves out of the drop zone.

Because track evolution is such a factor in Bahrain, Kamui Kobauashi went 2nd, then Daniel Ricciardo went on top using the soft tyres. Sergio Perez then pipped the Toro Rosso by 0.1 seconds to end the session on top.

Michael Schumacher was pushed down to 17th by Pastor Maldonado, then a last-gasp flyer by Heikki Kovalainen put him into Q2, and knocked the Mercedes out of Q1. Amazingly, the track evolution was so severe that the McLarens were left 15th and 16th.

Drivers knocked out of Q1:

18) Michael Schumacher

19) Jean-Eric Vergne

20) Vitaly Petrov

21) Charles Pic

22) Timo Glock

23) Narain Karthikeyan

24) Pedro de la Rosa

Q2

There was a slow response to the start of Q2, with Felipe Massa finally exiting the pits after a few minutes.

He set the intial pace, but was quickly beaten by Perez by 0.6 seconds. Hamilton and Rosberg both set 1:33.2s to take the top 2 spots.

Massa’s later attempt put him 9th. However, he was soon pushed out by Daniel Ricciardo. Paul di Resta went 5th, with the fastest final sector of any driver.

Fernando Alonso was pushed down to 13th, but his final lap put him back up to 4th. Romain Grosjean moved up to 3rd, but at the expense of teammate Raikkonen, who was knocked out of Q2.

Drivers knocked out of Q2:

11) Kimi Raikkonen

12) Kamui Kobayashi

13) Nico Hulkenberg

14) Felipe Massa

15) Bruno Senna

16) Heikki Kovalainen

17) Pastor Maldonado

Q3

With track evolution still a massive factor, the end of the session proved to be the climactic finish everyone was expecting.

A nasty lock-up slowed Webber’s first lap, but he still set a 1:32.785. Button was several hundreths off, while Hamilton went a tenth faster than the Red Bull.

Only 4 drivers set times in the first half of Q3, as everyone waited until the final 3 minutes to set their fast laps.

Nico Rosberg was first up, losing out by one tenth of a second. Mark Webber went fastest, before having his lap time shattered by teammate Vettel. Hamilton was 0.1 seconds off Sebastian, while Jenson Button aborted his final lap to finish 4th.

This left Vettel on pole position for the first time in 2012, with Hamilton close behind. Webber and Button will fill row 2, with Rosberg and Ricciardo behind. Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez were 7th and 8th, with Fernando Alonso and Paul di Resta not setting a time.

Both Bahrain’s Crown prince and Formula 1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone have reiterated that the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend will go ahead as planned, despite several incidents involving protestors and the teams.

Force India pulled out of second practice to avoid a repeat of Wednesday evening, when their team bus was caught up in a petrol bomb attack. Sauber team personnel reported seeing protests and fires on their way back to the hotel.

"I think cancelling the race just empowers extremists. For those of us trying to
navigate a way out of this political problem, having the race allows us to build
bridges across communities, to get people working together. It allows us to
celebrate our nation. It is an idea that is positive, not one that is divisive."

Meanwhile, Ecclestone claimed that responsibility of the race had nothing to do with him:

"I can’t call this race off. Nothing to do with us. We’ve an agreement to be here,
and we’re here. The national sporting authority in this country can call the race
off. You can ask the FIA if they can."